I awoke at 7:00, which was a good thing. After so much walking yesterday and feeling constantly behind with online tasks to the point of stress, I needed the morning as a break from touring. I consoled myself with the fact that I could never see/do all of Tokyo anyway.

I made some tea and spent 4.5 hours on my laptop! I thoroughly caught up on finances, published a blog post about my last day in Ubud, and researched where to go today.

I found a half-day walking tour recommendation for Daikanyama and Nakameguro, and my heart sank a little again. It would have been absolutely perfect for my half-day yesterday after the cafe in the morning. Rather than rely on my bullet points culled from a few emails, it would have served me so well to take a few minutes to review the emails themselves.

When I did so, I was reminded of a tip from a co-worker: go see Takeshita-dori but take detours onto the side streets to escape the madness and poke around smaller shops. Instead, I’d just walked the main thoroughfare totally overwhelmed. It probably would not have made much of a difference to me to explore the side streets, but I also re-read that a friend of a friend had visited “teen mall on crack” Laforet, which I had walked right past after I exited Takeshita-dori and was on my way to Two Rooms. Would I have seen Harajuku fashion there? I don’t know, but it felt like a missed opportunity and like Japan had gotten off on the wrong foot 😕

I had the loose idea that after Yoyogi Park, I would take the 45-50 minute ride on the Yamanote line east to Ueno Park, and this morning I read about Akihabara just south of there, the nerd culture center whose main street is closed to cars on Sundays. A plan comes together!

I showered and got dressed and did some quick pelvic corrections and press-ups. I had woken up with a little bit of nerve pain that I mostly ignored. It was mild, and I didn’t have time for that shit. I was pretty hungry at this point and realized as I was leaving that I could have eaten my leftover salmon scramble from yesterday. Sigh.

I walked to Ebisu Station (it seems I may get around Tokyo with my JR Pass and without buying a Suica metro card) and rode the Yamanote line one stop to Shibuya Station and took the Hachikō exit.

Hachikō was a dog in the 1920s who waited every day at Shibuya Station to greet his professor owner when he would return home from work. One day, the professor passed away suddenly and did not return from work, yet Hachikō continued to wait at Shibuya at the same time every day for over 9 years afterward. He became a symbol of family loyalty in Japan and is commemorated with a statue at the station. So I went to see it! (Along with dozens of other folks, but I managed to snag a photo with no people in front of or on the sides of the statue because I am a wizard at capturing people-free photos in people-packed locales. It takes more patience than I could exhibit were I not traveling alone.)

Just a few steps from the statue is Shibuya Crossing, a pedestrian intersection known locally as “The Scramble”. It’s massive and has a diagonal direction in addition to the usual four that intersections have, and when the lights turn red for the cars, hundreds of people pour into the crossing from all directions. I watched for a couple cycles of the lights and realized my phone was never going to capture the spectacle. I’d read about an overhead vantage point, and when I turned around and looked up, I saw about a block away a second-floor walkway within Shibuya Station with faces pressed to glass. I went up there, took some photos, and then came back down to walk the intersection myself, sans photo taking and with a silly smile at doing something so routine and iconic at the same time.

Back on the Yamanote line I went and rode one more stop to Harajuku again (really can’t help but roll my eyes at myself on this). A bridge crosses over the railway tracks to get to the entrance to Yoyogi Park. I lingered a moment around the bridge as I’d read this is also a good place for Harajuku fashion viewing. Alas, nada. There were some breakdancers taking turns in a busking spot. There was a dude dancing in a crazy loose way, and I really wanted to capture him feeling himself but when I would raise my camera he would stop, though I don’t think he ever saw me. Karmically, it was not meant to be.

I traded photo-taking with some strangers at a very large torii gate that I thought was Meiji Shrine but which I later learned was merely the entrance to the path that leads to the shrine. This was not the first time I would make this mistake in Japan.

I followed the wide path through the gate and into the park. I didn’t know where I was going, but I figured I would be most likely to find the greasers and other good people-watching in an open grassy area, something like Dolores Park in San Francisco. I passed by a wall of sake barrels, an offering to the enshrined souls of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken (late 1800s).

I found myself at a temizuya, an elaborate water basin at the entrance to every shrine (my clue that I had actually reached Meiji, though I ultimately didn’t proceed to view it). I’d read about the purification ritual and gave it a go, scooping water with a ladle and rinsing one hand and then the other, followed by my mouth, poured out the rest of the water and returned the ladle, bowed once and clapped once. I read about it again later to see how close I’d gotten. My left/right order was backward, the excess water is meant to be poured down the ladle’s handle for rinsing, and I think the bowing/clapping happens in front of the shrine rather than at the temizuya. I had time for improvement before I got to Kyoto, city of many temples.

It was almost 14:00, and I was discouraged that I wasn’t going to see the Yoyogi greasers. I looked online to see if I could find where in the park they do their thing (again… would have been a great idea to do this before I got here… my planning for this trip was so on point, and then in Japan, where I most needed to have my shit together, I just … didn’t). Alas, it seemed to be at the entrance to the park at the Harajuku Bridge! Sigh. I walked back, feeling pretty sure I’d either missed them or they weren’t here today.

Back at the bridge, I needed to decide my next move. I hadn’t eaten yet and needed to figure that out. I looked up places around Ueno Park. It was going to be almost an hour on the train, and though I was anxious to move on from Harajuku, there were a lot more options around where I already was. I Google’d vegetarian ramen and found a place relatively nearby called Ichiran that probably didn’t offer a non-meat broth but sounded promising nonetheless as they seemed to take their tonkotsu ramen very seriously.

I arrived to find a line down the stairs, and when I tried to join, an employee guided me to the overflow line on the sidewalk. My gut reaction was “well, stuff this,” but then I realized this was a good sign. It got better when the employee managing the line handed me a menu to peruse in advance and I realized this was one of the ramen joints I’d heard of where you barely interact with a server because you sit in an individual booth and they pass your food through a little window. I’d completely forgotten I wanted to do this, and I was here by accident! Some things work out without planning.

I used Google Translate to ask the host if vegetarian broth was available, and I will probably never forget his reaction as he somewhat somberly made an X with his two index fingers and bowed slightly forward. Message received. And totally OK with me. I am doing this. Cultural exception made.

Since Ichiran specializes in one dish, the menu was relatively easy — you just decide what add-ons you want: pork slices, egg, extra green onions, extra garlic. I selected an egg and the yummy-sounding dessert: matcha almond pudding with green tea sauce.

I reached the top of the stairs, and another employee guided me to one of two pay machines (cash only). A ticket popped out for each of the three items I ordered, including the ramen.

The machine employee monitors exiting diners and guided me inside when there was space in the next waiting area, where yet another employee handed me a form to customize my ramen. I could choose: light to strong seasoning of the stock, richness, amount of garlic, green onion greens or whites, with or without spicy red sauce, and noodle texture. The menu had said to choose 0 if any spicy sensitivity, and while I’ve worked my way up from total wuss to “medium”, I had no idea what medium spicy meant for tonkotsu ramen at Ichiran in Tokyo. I didn’t want my ramen to be inedible to me, so I went light across the board, except for the garlic (the add-on is 2 cloves, whereas the form allowed up to 1 clove and I chose 1/2); light seasoning and richness, zero spice.

Eventually, I was ushered through one of two curtains into a narrow row of “flavor concentration booths”, each of which has chopsticks, a water tap, instructions, and a window shade that is down until the patron is seated. My shade went up and I pushed forward my three tickets. The kitchen staff asked me something in response. Uh-oh. I thought there was going to be no verbal exchange at all. I used Cindy’s phrase, “Eigo OK des?” Nope, no English here. The shade went down. When it came back up, a small bowl with my egg appeared, as well as a small metal tray that served as a placeholder for ordering my dessert. (I guess we all let go of whatever they needed to know.)

I took photos while waiting for my ramen, which took all of about 4 minutes. I peeled the egg and added it to the bowl. Moment of truth! Oh….. bummer. It’s really bland! My bad. I could have bumped the seasoning and even the spiciness just a little. That’s OK. While it didn’t taste like some of the best ramen in the world, I was thoroughly enjoying the entire experience.

The instructions on the wall made clear how to use the small metal tray, though they refer to ordering extra noodles ordered in advance as opposed to dessert. When I finished my ramen, I pushed the tray forward onto a small platform with two push buttons, one to indicate you’re away from the table (presumably to use the loo) and the other to call for the kitchen to collect your extra order. Pushing the order button rings out a charamela tune that made me feel like I was back in Hobbiton in New Zealand and which was so frequent during my lunch that it played in my head for a few days.

The tray was collected immediately and almost as quickly my dessert arrived. I opened the packet of green tea sauce and poured it onto the cylindrical mound of pudding. Oh… yum. Not bland at all. And not overly sweet. Super yum.

From the moment I arrived to when I left was just a little over an hour and yet felt like a monumental event!

I walked back to Harajuku Station and took the Yamanote line to Ueno. The park is directly across from the station, which was good because it was already 17:00 when I arrived! Ueno is a pretty park with fountains and gardens and a lake and apparently I love visiting these types of spots, like the botanic gardens in Wellington, when I travel. I’ve been thinking about whether I visit places like this at home. I’ve been to Portland’s rhododendron gardens once when my mom visited, I’ve been to the rose garden in Washington Park a few times, and I’ve visited the Japanese and Chinese gardens at least once each. This seems to be a travel focus for me, though.

Also likely to be a good geocaching spot! And I hadn’t found one yet in Japan. I looked in the app and found that there was a cache not far from the entrance and to the left, but first I wanted to see the fountain off to the right. It was much bigger than I expected and very pretty and unfortunately shrouded in shadow. Alas, the consequence of spending the entire morning at home.

I bypassed the zoo. Pandas are adorable but it was too late in the day for that, and I’m ambivalent about zoos anyway. I have never been to the Oregon Zoo in Portland.

I walked toward the cache, which was also toward the park’s Buddha that I wanted to see. Gah! Gates closed. I had simply arrived too late. On the plus side, the cache was very easy to find and there weren’t too many “muggles” around (the geocaching community borrowed and adapted this Harry Potter term to mean non-geocachers, similar to non-magical types), allowing me to sign my name in the log and return the cache to its hiding spot undisturbed. A third country added to my geocaching map this trip – yay!

I made my way toward the lake (I love water features!), passing through a lane of vendors selling all manner of food on a stick: fish, chicken, crab, tofu… I passed a few shrines and encountered the first of many “ema” that I would see: small wooden plaques hanging on a large board in front of temples and shrines upon which wishes are handwritten.

Arriving at the lake, I found people padding lazily along in dozens of pastel swan-shaped boats. I found a bench and enjoyed the placid view for a bit before making my way back toward the exit of the park. I encountered a baseball game in progress and took some video to send to my friend Todd, who passed on his love of baseball to his 14-year-old son and is currently immersed in tournament season with him.

It was another two stops on the Yamanote line to Akihabara, and I looked up how long the main street is closed on Sundays. It reopens at 18:00, and I arrived at 18:30. Sigh… Tokyo, you vex me.

Actually, it was cool arriving at dusk as the whole environment was very Bright Lights Big City, which I loved seeing. On the other hand, I had the same feeling as when wandering Takeshita-dori yesterday… which shops to look in? what exactly would I be looking for? I walked side streets instead and noticed my back was becoming walked-a-lot achy.

I passed a half-dozen young women dressed as “maids” and handing out cards promoting their cafes. Another thing Akihabara is known for are the maid cafes, where the female servers dress as maids — sometimes French, sometimes Victorian, sometimes anime-inspired — and treat patrons as their masters and mistresses. Not in a kinky way, they’re meant to be seen as innocent and cute in their subservience.

I was hungry and considered trying this experience, but it’s not really about the food and I decided that it was likely something that would be silly fun if I had someone with me but would just be silly alone.

The analysis paralysis I mentioned yesterday continued, and I was struck with the feeling that I was having a hard time participating in Tokyo so far. With that in mind, and unable to decide where I was going to eat, I had a “fuck it” moment and decided I would check out the six floors of arcade in one of the SEGA buildings (there are many). I’m going in!

The first and second floors had crane/claw games, those money sinks that never allow you to catch the stuffed animal or what not. The sixth floor was a giant VR arena. The third, fourth, and fifth floors had arcade games of various styles that have evolved quite a bit since I used to play Tron.

I was intimidated by most of it but found two different versions of Dance Dance Revolution, a super-disco platform I had no idea how to use and the old-school version with arrows to step on. I wanted to play! It had a card reader rather than coin slots to deposit ¥100 per game.

In the center of the floor was a help desk, a change machine, and a player card dispenser. I purchased a Nesica player card for ¥300 ($2.75 USD) and went back to DDR, but applying the card to the reader didn’t start the game. Some English-speaking folks came over to DDR and seemed interested. I told them I was having trouble using my card and left them to the game while I tried to figure it out. I asked an employee for help, but he spoke no English and I didn’t understand the gestures he used. When I wandered back to DDR, the people I left there were playing, and when I asked how, they had used coins! I had missed the coin slots 🙄

I used Google Translate to ask another employee if I could refund the card, and that was a hard ‘no’. I became determined to figure out how to use it to play and asked him for more help. He was far less patient and kind than the first employee I’d engaged but nonetheless tried to walk me through starting up some kind of music/girl-group game. He advanced through a few screens and then stood aside, looking elsewhere in the gaming area, and nothing was happening to start the game, and I couldn’t ask him “what now?” because of the language barrier and it was loud and he was kind of over helping me. Argh.

After more wandering around in stubbornness, I eventually let go of the fact that I’d purchased a gaming card that I didn’t need and wasn’t going to be able to use and I dropped a ¥100 coin in DDR. Wheeee! It gave me 3 songs, which I didn’t expect. They were all beginner level, and the arrows were ridiculously slow, but I loved it. I participated!

It was 21:45 when I arrived back at Ebisu Station, having traveled all the way around the circular Yamanote line. I saw an Indian place nearby called Tandoor, and that sounded pretty good. Despite having put off dinner, I wasn’t hungry enough for a full meal and I was impatient to get back home and rest. I simply had two veggie samosas and called it good.

Back home, I showered and gave my hair its first proper shampoo since New Zealand. The hosts in Bali didn’t provide shampoo and to save space I had brought only conditioner for my hair and Dr. Bronners for hand washing of clothes, body wash, hand soap, and shampoo.

I got in bed and spent some more time online, though I had to switch back to the salon network as I had apparently used all of the pocket wifi’s data allowance. Oh well, it was very convenient while it lasted.